A Weblog by One Humble Bookman on Topics of Interest to Discerning Readers, Including (Though Not Limited To) Science Fiction, Books, Random Thoughts, Fanciful Family Anecdotes, Publishing, Science Fiction, The Mating Habits of Extinct Waterfowl, The Secret Arts of Marketing, Other Books, Various Attempts at Humor, The Wonders of New Jersey, the Tedious Minutiae of a Boring Life, Science Fiction, No Accounting (For Taste), And Other Weighty Matters.

Who Is This Hornswoggler?

Andrew Wheeler has worked in book publishing for 25 years. He spent 16 years as a bookclub editor (for the SFBC and others), and then moved into marketing. He marketed books and other products for Wiley for eight years, and now works for Thomson Reuters. He was a judge for the 2005 World Fantasy Awards and the 2008 Eisner Awards. He also reviewed a book a day for a year twice. He lives with The Wife and two mostly tame sons (Thing One, born 1998; and Thing Two, born 2000) at an unspecified location in suburban New Jersey. He has been known to drive a minivan, and nearly all of his writings are best read in a tone of bemused sarcasm. Antick Musings’s manifesto is here. All opinions expressed here are entirely and purely those of Andrew Wheeler, and no one else.

Monday, January 12, 2015

You probably already know this, but here's the scoop: these are books that came in the past week, sent by various publicists in hope of media coverage. (Yes, these days even a blog like this counts as "media." I'm as appalled as you are.) Many people in my situation post pictures of the books as they arrive, but I try to go a little further and explain what the books are and who might be interested in them. (I may be wrong or misguided, and I may often try to be humorous than entirely journalistic.) This happens every Monday morning.

I intermittently want to catch up on Walter Mosley's writing, but he's so prolific and imaginative -- and my to-read shelf so large already -- that reading everything is very daunting. And, yet, every single book that comes through looks quirky and interesting and particular: he's possibly the most mercurial and exciting bestselling writer working in America today. His new book is a SF novel, Inside a Silver Box, coming from Tor as a hardcover on January 27th. It's about an ancient sentient alien superweapon, the race that created it long ago, and two humans who stumble upon that weapon by accident.

I mentioned S.G. Redling's novel Ourselves a few months back when I saw it in bound-galley form, and now the book itself is imminent -- it's a trade paperback from Amazon's 47North imprint, also coming January 27. This one is a contemporary fantasy with not-vampires and their sexy mesmeric powers, and particularly with two of them, a young man and woman, who get caught up together in plots and schemes and battles against what I expect is the corrupt, evil, secret dark lord of the world.

And last for this week is a military SF novel, the first from W.C. Bauers: Unbreakable. It also declares itself to be the first in "The Chronicles of Promise Paen," so those of you who refuse to read anything not in a series -- which must be a substantial proportion, if the sales charts are any indication -- should leap at it. The series name gives us our viewpoint character: Ms. Paen is a tough space Marine posted back to her backwater home planet in a dangerous region between two squabbling empires, and the usual explosions and battles and shocking revelations ensue. This is a Tor hardcover, and will be available January 13 -- so you could possibly get it today, if supply chains run just a bit quicker than expected.